Saturday, May 30, 2009

Chicken Satay (or chicken in a spicy Thai peanut sauce)

Tonight some of my closest friends are coming over to have dinner and watch zombie movies. I'm making this recipe which is one of my favorites and always a huge crowd pleaser. Peanut sauce is one of my wife's favorites as well, so brownie points for me. This works well as an appetizer if the chicken is on skewers, you can skewer bell pepper or even pineapple with it if you like, but I'm simply using this tonight as a substitute for BBQ sauce.

2 cloves garlic

2 Tbsp tomato paste

2 scallions roughly minced

1-3 Thai chilis or Jalapenos (leave seeds if you like it hot)

1/4 cup cilantro

1/2 cup peanut butter (Chunky if you like a little more texture)

1/2 cup chicken broth

3 Tbsp fish sauce (can be found in Asian food section of most mega marts. Substitute soy sauce if you can't find it.)

3 Tbsp lime juice (use real limes, not the bottled stuff)

1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

2 Tbsp light brown sugar

1 Tbsp Kecap Manis (sweet molasses soy sauce) or Molasses

Black pepper

1/2 cup chopped peanuts for garnish

Cilantro leaves for garnish

Place the Tomato paste, garlic, chilis, cilantro, and scallions in the food processor and puree to a fine paste. Add the remaining ingredients and continue to process. You may want to add more fish sauce at this point, or brown sugar, or perhaps lime juice depending on your particular taste. You don't want to baste your chicken with this or it will burn, this is a finishing sauce only. If you marinade your chicken in a little soy sauce, and lime juice before you grill, it will be better. The sauce should be thick and pourable like a BBQ sauce. If it's too thick just add a little more stock or a little water. Garnish the chicken with chopped peanuts and cilantro leaves. If you take the green part of a scallion and slice it very thin and soak it for a couple minutes in ice water, it makes a pretty garnish as well, just drain the scallion and sprinkle over the top. Bon appetite!

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About Me

thepocketchefs@gmail.com
(706)614-9798
Jeremy Hankins and Dallas Bono are chefs for hire. In a way you could say we are caterers, but our abilities are not limited to preparing mass quantities of food, loading it into a van, and sending it to whatever location it's supposed to go. We design a menu according to YOUR tastes, not ours. We will cook for a large party, or a simple romantic meal for two. If you are entertaining a boss, or prospective client and want to impress them with a delicious home cooked meal, but simply don't have the time, we'll cook it for you and escape unseen so you can take all the credit. We specialize in intimate dinner parties of 10 - 20 people, and serve a wonderful 7 course dinner, complete with entertainment if you like. Dallas Bono is an operatic tenor. He has sung in many of this country's premier opera houses as a leading tenor. We can sing opera, musical theater, and jazz. We even have a portable electric piano and can bring it and a fabulous pianist to provide soft dinner music while you dine. Jeremy and I are available for private cooking lessons, or public demonstrations.